Russia’s state media regulator on Friday said it was implementing sanctions against five foreign IT companies for breaking online content laws, which could require search engines to issue a disclaimer for violations. Regulator Roskomnadzor said it was imposing measures against ByteDance’s TikTok, messaging service Telegram, Zoom Video Communications, chat tool Discord and Pinterest.
In a statement, Roskomnadzor says the measures are in response to companies not removing content flagged as illegal and will be maintained until they comply.
Neither company immediately responded to a written request for comment.
Roskomnadzor did not specify exactly what measures would be taken. Russia’s dominant Yandex The search engine has issued a disclaimer for several other websites that read: “Roskomnadzor: site that violates Russian law”.
“Roskomnadzor has decided to apply enforcement measures … in the form of internet users being notified by search engines of violations of Russian law,” the regulator said.
Russia has fined some, mostly foreign tech companies, for not removing content it considers illegal. It has also warned websites that violate a law passed in early March that prohibits “discrediting” the armed forces, with sentences of up to 15 years.
On Tuesday, a Russian court fined Amazon’s live-streaming unit Twitch 2 million RUB (approximately Rs 26,81,200) and Telegram RUB 11 million (about Rs 1.5 crore) to host content that Moscow says contains “fake” information regarding events in Ukraine.
Kommersant reported that the court charged Twitch, a US-based live-streaming service popular with video players, of failing to remove a 31-second clip of a girl in the town of Bucha. It does not specify the content of the video.
Russian lawmakers in July passed a bill providing for tougher penalties for foreign internet companies, including a search engine disclaimer.
© Thomson Reuters 2022
